a single question, what are you willing to give. you know, whenjohnboehnerappears,they say are you willing to accept higher rates. no one says what are you going to do about entitlements or anything, there's no question of the president whether he will compromise and what that would look like. >> paul: steve, what do you think the republicans ought to do here? is there a way out for them or are they going to be pushed back into a corner where they have no choice, but to concede that they have to raise tax rates or else go over the cliff and get blamed for that? >> well, it's a tough situation for them. there's no question about it because as you know, the default position, if we don't do anything is for the taxes to go up on everybody on january 1st, and that's something i think both sides want to avoid. it's very interesting, the thing that happened this week to start the week, was who was the first person that barack obama met with in the white house since his election, the labor unions, the labor block, that tells a lot who is driving policy at least at the start of the second t

boehnerimmediatelysaying he generally supportive of trying to close the loop holes. do you see that as raising taxes? >> what boehner said and in the republican position since republican we should reduce rates have economic growth many of which are put in by obama for the solyndra green-type energy programs. let's bring the rates down. boehner was clear he wanted increase revenues it is not a tax increase to put more americans at work. if our recovery was growing the rate reagans did more americans would be at work. in terms of raising revenue which boehner grew about. if you grew the economy at reagan levels instead of two percent and obama and french levels, just growing faster and do that for a decade, the federal government gets trillions in taxes. we could undo the damage by having higher growth. >> gretchen: that's the difference in ideology. raise it to 3#.9 percent x. replace the alternative minimum tax with the buffet and raise the state tax and long-term capitol gains from 15-20. where do you think that those four points will go in negotiations with the republicans? >

. >> couldinviteboehneroverfor bowling. it couldn't hurt. >> play golf with them. you are going to play golf anyway. >> there you go. it's a fantastic new book. check it out. "thomas jefferson, the art of power." thank you very much. >> appreciate it. >> why did president petraeus blame the attack on the video when he probably new better? thomas krauthammer next hour with a pretty good theory. and then a nine-year-old girl proving she can beat the boys at their own game. she is here next. [ timers ringing ] [ male announcer ] it's that time of year. time for campbell's green bean casserole. you'll find the recipe at campbellskitchen.com. ♪ campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. [ husband ] transfer! [ male announcer ] free data transfer at home. you just deleted all the photos! you did! no you did! [ male announcer ] or free data transfer when you buy a windows 8 computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade. military families face, we understan at usaa, we know military life is different. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is